MA Market Share Report 2019: The Top Fidelity & Surety Insurers

Agency Checklists takes a look at the size and composition of the Fidelity & Surety marketplace in Massachusetts.

According to Wikipedia, the earliest known record of a contract of suretyship is a Mesopotamian tablet written around 2750 B.C. It is also mentioned in the written legal code of the Code of Hammurabi, which is often cited as the earliest surviving evidence of its existence. Further archaeological evidence shows the importance of surety bonds throughout the ages. Many civilizations incorporated surety insurance into their laws including, but not limited to, Babylon, Persia, Assyria, Rome, Carthage, as well as the ancient Hebrews. In more modern times, the first corporate surety, the Guarantee Society of London, was created in 1840.

Fast Facts about the state of the modern Fidelity & Surety Marketplace

According to the Surety & Fidelity Association of America, 2017 marked the second year in a row that the surety industry has experienced “record growth.”

More specifically, Total Direct Premium Written increased from $5.9 billion to $6.2 billion in 2017, marking the fifth straight year of increases.

And Massachusetts? A look at the state of the marketplace here as of 2017. As always, our data here comes courtesy of the Massachusetts Division of Insurance and is the latest year for which complete data is available.

Premium and market share for the Top 20 insurers in the Fidelity & Surety marketplace

While not one of the largest insurance lines in the state, Total Direct Written Premium for 2017 in the Commonwealth was still a respectable $190,784,974. As for the number of companies writing this line of insurance, the number in 2017 is 162, down from the 173 companies which wrote Fidelity & Surety insurance in Massachusetts in 2016.

The Total Direct Written Premium for the Top 20 companies in this line totaled $155,407,848 representing a market share of 81.5%. The remaining 142 companies had a wrote approximately $35,377,126 in Total Direct Written Premium representing the remaining 18.5% market share for this line of business.

Are there any top insurers that are based in Massachusetts as well?

Yes. Only two of the top 20 insurers hail from Massachusetts. As of 2017, Liberty Mutual Ins Co. was the top writer with $30,575,141 in Premium Written in Massachusetts. This translates into a 16.03% share of the marketplace. The second Mass.-based company is United Casualty & Surety Insurance Co. which is ranked as the 18th largest writer in the Commonwealth with a 1.12% share of the market.

Article Comments & Updates

Frank A. Lombard CPCU ARM I would assume this doesn’t mean an insured is not responsible for loss of value, it just means the Mass Auto policy need not respond to it. Insured would not be covered for this exposure. Would insurer be required to defend? Would personal umbrella without... Aug 26, 12:55 PM

Justin Flynn Strange that carriers come up with endorsements for this particular situation without having corporate counsel review the MA auto policy (MAP) and carrier endorsements (in this case the secure lender endorsement); the carrier and agent were obviously deceived by the insured. Owen, you mentioned this... Jun 30, 9:05 PM

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